NASA’s Orion Spaceship slingshots around moon, heads for home

In this handout video grab courtesy of NASA TV the Earth is visible as a crescent in the minutes after Orion finished its engine burn around the moon on Dec. 5, 2022. (Photo by Handout/NASA TV/AFP)

WASHINGTON: NASA’s Orion spaceship made a close pass by the moon and used a gravity assist to whip itself back toward Earth on Monday, marking the start of the return journey for the Artemis-1 mission.